You seem to be using rationality to refer to both bug fixes and general intelligence. I’m more concerned about bug fixes myself, for the situation Wei Dai describes. Status-related bugs seem potentially the worst.
I meant to refer to just bug fixes, I think. My comment wasn’t really responsive to yours, just prompted by it, and I should probably have added a note to that effect. One can imagine a set of bugs that become more fixed or less fixed over time, varying together in a continuous manner, depending on e.g. what emotional state one is in. One might be more vulnerable to many bugs when sleepy, for example. One can then talk about averages and extreme values of such a “general rationality” factor in a typical decision context, and talk about whether there are important non-standard contexts where new bugs become important that one hasn’t prepared for. I agree that bugs related to status (and to interpersonal conflict) seem particularly dangerous.
You seem to be using rationality to refer to both bug fixes and general intelligence. I’m more concerned about bug fixes myself, for the situation Wei Dai describes. Status-related bugs seem potentially the worst.
I meant to refer to just bug fixes, I think. My comment wasn’t really responsive to yours, just prompted by it, and I should probably have added a note to that effect. One can imagine a set of bugs that become more fixed or less fixed over time, varying together in a continuous manner, depending on e.g. what emotional state one is in. One might be more vulnerable to many bugs when sleepy, for example. One can then talk about averages and extreme values of such a “general rationality” factor in a typical decision context, and talk about whether there are important non-standard contexts where new bugs become important that one hasn’t prepared for. I agree that bugs related to status (and to interpersonal conflict) seem particularly dangerous.